Party Crashers
by Wind's Gale
Summary: Asami, Bolin, Mako, and Korra infiltrate a party thrown by Unalaq. Written for the Pro-bending Circuit.


_Prompts: Dialogue: "Were you expecting someone else?", Emotion: Surprise, Character: Unalaq. Word Count: 2,343_

* * *

He tapped his foot impatiently as he waited outside the open door of the restaurant. It wasn't the wait that was making him nervous, but the reason they were all gathering in the first place. Korra had decided to infiltrate a party Unalaq was supposedly throwing, with Mako and Asami agreeing to help with. Bolin thought it was a bad idea but he couldn't say no to his friends, so he agreed.

He gave his foot a few impatient taps before looking at his watch and deciding to head inside. He was already at the restaurant, he might as well eat.

"Alright! Food!" He rubbed his hands as his food was brought to him.

"Couldn't even wait for us, could you?"

Bolin looked up to see Mako, Asami, and Korra staring at him.

"Oh, hey guys. I already ordered food." Bolin said right before stuffing his mouth with noodles.

"You know, we came to talk to. Not to eat." Korra said as everyone slid into the booth with her and Asami sitting on the opposite side of Mako and Bolin.

"I see no reason why we can't do both. I'm a bit hungry myself." Mako reached over with some chopsticks to grab Bolin's food, only to have his hand smacked by his brother. "Are you sure this is a good idea, Korra?"

"I don't know, but I need to know what Unalaq's up to. This may be our only chance to get a few steps ahead of him."

"Who's this guy we're suppose to be meeting anyway?" Bolin asked with a mouth full of wet noodles.

"Someone who knows Unalaq a lot better than I do."

A young 10 year old boy slid into the booth with them suddenly, sitting himself next to Asami. His black hair was short and spiked. He wore a blue parka with white fur trimmings on the sleeves, although his hood had brown fur. His eyes were an unusual green color, something not common among the Water Tribes. Everyone stared at him as he sat himself down.

"Soo…I'm thinking this is him?" Bolin asked.

"This is Iqaluit. For years he's been sneaking in and out of Unalaq's palace without being noticed. He was one of the first to know about the upcoming war." Korra explained. "I found him a couple of weeks ago stealing oranges from the market. He's also how I found out about the upcoming party in Unalaq's palace."

"He's a kid." Mako said.

"And you're an emotionally insecure jerk." Iqaluit responded.

Mako immediately stood up but Bolin quickly placed a hand on his shoulder to make him sit down again. "Easy there. Like you said, he's just a kid." The older brother scowled but sat down with his arms crossed.

"So what information do you have about Unalaq's party?" Asami asked.

"It's being held in 2 days after sunset. Normally at these types of parties, Unalaq invites higher up political people and tries to get in their favor, but this time he's inviting people who are more behind the scenes and have more political control than those people. I think he's going to try to bribe them so he can get more support in the war. To make it even more sleazy, it's a face-mask theme party. People can come in with their faces painted or have it painted at the party. I think it's kind of weird but it's the talk of the town. "

"That's great, but how do we get in?" Bolin asked.

Iqaluit pulled out a rolled up sheet of paper from the pouch on his hip and laid it onto the middle of the table, revealing a map of the palace. "Unalaq usually has guards posted outside the palace in these areas. On the inside he usually has a few guards that patrol some of his halls. You can slip in here from this unfinished sewer system. Once inside, there's a grate you can enter through but it can only be opened from the inside."

"Mako and Asami will have to go in disguised. Unalaq will recognize Bolin's and mine's faces. Asami and Mako will mingle with the guests and ease drop on any conversations while Bolin and I will sneak around the rest of the palace and see if we can find any papers or documents." Korra said.

"Alright! Sneaking in like ninjas." Bolin exclaimed.

"I stole one of the party invitations and replicated it. Looks just like the original." The young boy pulled out another piece of paper, this time it was folded as he placed it on the table on top the map. "Right down to Chief Unalaq's signature."

"This is perfect. Iqaluit, you are a genius." Korra praised.

"Yeah, I gotta hand it to you, little guy. You sure know how to sneak." Bolin added. "You got any information on Eska?"

"Sure do. But my information is not free." Iqaluit cleared his throat and held out his hand in front of Asami, who looked puzzled by his gesture.

"I may or may not have mentioned that you were going to pay him for his services." Korra said with a nervous grin. Asami raised her eyebrow at Korra before sighing.

* * *

 _Night of the Party_

Asami was dressed in a large, fur parka that extended down to her ankles. Underneath her parka was her formal red dress. Mako was wearing a similar parka, except it stopped just above his hips. He had on his formal britches and jacket, though he had to hide his scarf so his identity wouldn't be so obvious. On their faces they had brown, white, and black to mimic the style of a badger mole.

"This is stupid." Asami said as they approached the front of the building, holding onto Mako's arm.

"This entire war is stupid." Mako mumbled. He held the folded piece of paper to the guards, who didn't bother to check the actual invitation.

"Well, that was easy." Asami said as they walked in. Inside the palace were so many people, all dressed with the utmost class. They even had someone taking the coats as they walked in. "Where do you think Unalaq is?"

"I don't know. Let's focus on getting Korra and Bolin in. I'll distract the guard and you go find that grate."

Asami didn't need to flirt to get someone's attention. She was able to keep up an interesting conversation, much to Mako's relief. While she was attending to the guard's attention, he slipped past them both and made his way down the hall.

After 10 minutes of searching, he found the grate behind a desk in an office and a crammed Korra and Bolin stuffed in the tunnel.

"That kid could have warned us about how tight it was going to be to get in here." Bolin said as he dusted himself off.

"Well we're in now. Let's start looking. You better get back to Asami." Korra said.

"Be careful you two. Try to get out of here if you run into trouble." Mako warned.

"Right."

Asami noticed Mako sneaking back into the main room. She cut her conversation with the guard short and followed him.

"Did you find them?" She whispered.

"They're in. Let's keep an ear open for anything suspicious and then we'll go on our own search."

"Bolin, don't touch that. If that falls, the entire palace will hear it."

Bolin and Korra were in another office that had a huge statue of some Watertribe warrior. It was made out of a shiny metal and Bolin was drawn to it like a fly drawn to honey.

"I'm sorry but it's so cool."

Korra sighed as she rummaged through the desk drawers and cabinets behind it. "There's nothing here except council papers, property documents, and other stuff. Are you finding anything?" She turned around to see Bolin still poking at the statue. "Bolin!"

"I'm sorry! I'm looking now!" He backed away from the statue and dropped to his knees to look under the couch and its cushions. "Uh…Korra…Korra. Korra!"

She looked up from the desk in time to see her friend hiding behind her. "What? What's wrong? Did you see someone?"

"There's a frost spider underneath the couch."

"Oh Bolin."

Asami snuck away from the party this time, letting Mako mingle with the other guests to see if he could sniff out any information. She figured Korra and Bolin were busy searching through Unalaq's offices so she decided to look through his bedroom. It wasn't as big as she thought it was but it was glamorous, in a sense. Her bed looked like it was made out of pure silk and the canopy on top had a velvet like fabric hanging down. His armoires looked like they were newly polished. If he was hiding anything, it might just be in his room.

She started with his night stands, then his armoires, finding nothing but personal items. She even checked under his bed and in his bathroom but nothing came up.

"There's got to be something here." She said to herself while finding her eyes wandering to a weird painting hanging above his shorter wardrobe. It didn't look like it was hung, but rather like it was part of the wall. "That's odd."

She let her fingers skim along the edges of the painting. Then she pulled it. To her surprise, it opened up like a door. Inside the hidden wall safe were envelopes and other papers. She skimmed over them quickly.

"So, he's been threatening people to join his cause. Typical. What's this?" A few letters in particular stood out to her since they had her family name on it. After reading over them carefully, she realized Unalaq had been contacting her father prior to his arrest for being involved in the Equalist moment. He wanted her father to help supply his army, promising in return to rid him of Korra afterwards.

"So typical." She looked around the room one last time before closing the painting. "I should get back before I'm-"

As soon as she turned around, she saw Unalaq standing near his bed with a blank expression on his face. She would have broken out into a cold sweat if it wasn't for the paint on her face. A lump was slowly forming in her throat.

"Surprised?" He said.

There was a slight nod from her as she slowly placed the papers in her hand behind her back.

"I'm surprised myself."

"Were you expecting someone else?" She tried to hide the nervousness from her voice.

He said nothing, only take steps towards her. She backed away until her lower backside was pressed against the wardrobe. He got close. Too close. His body pressed against hers briefly as he snatched all the papers from her hand. He backed away and tucked them into the sleeve of his robe.

There was a sudden loud boom sound radiating through the palace. When her turned his head towards the direction of the sound, she pushed him away and ran out the room. Surprisingly, he didn't chase her. He let her go.

* * *

"Bolin, I said not to touch it!" Korra yelled as she struggled to open a window to one of the offices. On the other side of the room was a giant statue that fell over and was now blocking the only other exit. There was no Earth or Water in the room and her air bending and fire bending seemed to be ineffective against the window.

"Korra? Bolin? Are you guys in there?" They heard Mako yell on the other side of the door.

"Yeah, we have to go. Right now."

"Right, I'll find Asami and meet you guys at the large tree."

Growing frustrated with the unyielding window, Korra punched the window, shattering the glass. She threw a few more punches until they made a hole large enough for them to crawl through. By now, she could hear people outside the door pushing to get in.

"Alright Bolin, let's-" She smacked herself in the head when she saw Bolin crouched around the statue with tears in his eyes.

"I am so sorry. I shouldn't have harmed such a beautiful piece of art." He sobbed.

"Bolin. _Let's go!"_

"Coming!"

* * *

 _A Few Hours Later_

"Well, that was a complete disaster. Bolin alerted the guards, Asami ran across Unalaq, and Mako almost ended up going home with an old lady." Korra sighed as they sat around the restaurant they had been in just a couple of days before.

"Wait, what do you mean he almost went home with an old lady?" Asami asked.

"She kept touching my cheeks and calling me handsome. She hung onto my arm most of the night."

"So we went through all that and found out nothing." Bolin sighed. "And it's all my fault."

"It wasn't a total waste. I did find out that Unalaq had been contacting my father, asking for him to create mecha tanks. In exchange, he was suppose to kill Korra but my father refuse. I also found out he's been contacting a lot of inventors around the world, trying to bribe them or threaten them."

"So…what does this mean?" Korra asked.

"I have their contact information." Asami said as she pulled out a small sheet of paper from her pocket. "Judging from their response letters, they detest Unalaq. Maybe we could convince them to work with Future Industries."

"Not a bad idea." Korra said with a smile. She noticed a small kid standing in the doorway of the restaurant. "Excuse me for a moment."

Iqaluit waited for Korra to come to him.

"Hey, thanks for your help for getting us into that party. We couldn't have done it without you." Korra praised the kid.

"Yeah but you owe me that second part of the deal. I want a date with your hot friend."

"Um…I'm not sure Asami would-"

"I wasn't talking about Asami."

Korra ruffled his hair and headed back into the restaurant. He simply shrugged as he put his hands in his pocket and headed off down the road.


End file.
